Biography
The start of Brian Benben's career followed a familiar actor pattern, as he grew up in a state away from the buzz of celebrity - in his case Virginia - and then made his way to a bigger city to try to make it. In his late teenage years, Benben moved to New York City, where he made ends meet while trying to get his foot in the door of acting. His first major role was in the television mini-series "The Gangster Chronicles" (NBC 1981), where he played one of the chronicled gangsters Michael Lasker. He reprised the role in "Gangster Wars" (1981), the film based on the series. He briefly appeared on the short-lived medical drama "Kay O'Brien" (CBS 1986), which was cancelled before all of the 13 episodes were aired. The rest of the '80s were filled with a few guest appearances and small roles but in 1990 he landed his biggest one yet: the leading role of Martin Tupper on the HBO show "Dream On" (HBO 1990-96). Following the end of "Dream On," he starred in "The Brian Benben Show" (CBS 1998), which only ran for five of its nine episodes before cancellation. After a few more appearances in TV movies and short-lived shows, Benben returned to prominence in 2018 thanks to Shonda Rhimes as he played Dr. Sheldon Wallace for five seasons on "Private Practice" (ABC 2007-2013). He followed Rhimes over to another of her shows for an appearance in "Scandal" (ABC 2012-18). 2017 kicked off another main role on a TV show for Benben as he starred as Max on the dark comedy TV show "Imposters" (Bravo 2017- ).
